Torn From The Front Page: Rally ’round Bay City’s downtown post office, and find a way to keep it open.

When the U.S. Postal Service tore up the lot of its loading docks at 1000 Washington Ave. in Bay City last fall and put in new pavement, it looked like business as usual in the continuing upgrade at one of downtown’s most beloved buildings.

So, we gasped in surprise, along with the Bay City Commission, when city leaders learned Monday night that the U.S. Postal Service might sell its magnificent stone structure.

Don’t move the post office, city commissioners said in a resolution.

We agree. Keep it right where it is.

The post office, with the U.S. District Court and clerks, and Federal Bureau of Investigation offices upstairs, is a community hub, and a hive of activity downtown.

Yet, Bay City Acting Postal Operations Manager Julie Jacobsen confirmed Tuesday that the local post office might have to move in order to save money. The U.S. Postal Service rents space in the building to the District Court and the federal offices there.

It’s a costly pile of blocks to maintain. It’s in need of new heating and cooling systems, and more work on the widows, some of which got some maintenance last fall.

In 2006, the Department of Homeland Security sank $1.2 million into the place, with granite bollards out front and steel fences around the back, to fortify it against any kind of attack.

Throughout all of this work, we’ve been gratified to see that the character of the building, put up in the 1930s, has remained almost unchanged.

It would be a shame to move the post office away from there.

But the Postal Service, as an independent agency of the U.S. Government, is charged with supporting its own operations. With the drop in the economy and other challenges, it lost $3.8 billion last year.

Not that the Postal Service has stood idly by. It reduced its workforce nationally by about 40,000 employees in the past year, briefly considered another postal rate increase and proposed cutting Saturday delivery that could save it billions a year.

Without delving too deeply into those issues here, the Postal Service should be free to pursue any options it deems necessary to bring its operations into the black.

But don’t close the downtown Bay City post office.

To keep it open, Bay Cityans should embrace the old, federal building and give it a great, big hug with ideas that could keep the federal offices downtown.

The Great Lakes Bay Region, for example, is quickly becoming known for developments in wind and solar energy generation. How about making the federal building in Bay City an example of what can be done to retrofit old structures for the future?

Perhaps local corporations could work with their suppliers to install solar panels and wind turbines there.

If it needs window and furnace work, take up a community collection, then install a state-of-the-art geothermal climate-control system.

Pursue foundation and block grants — get some stimulus money — to pay for some of the work.

When complete, the old place could be an example to the rest of the nation of how we don’t have to throw away these grand, old structures. We can show that they don’t have to be obsolete.

We bet that folks in other stately buildings, the Bay County Building, Bay City Hall and many, many churches in town, would be very interested to see how such innovations would work out at the federal building.

It’s crucial that we keep the post office in its downtown building. People stop to do business there, and many stay downtown for a meal, some shopping or a night on the town.

Even so, it’s obvious that the Postal Service needs to cut its costs.

So, Bay City, let’s help.

Rally ’round the downtown post office, and help postal officials find a way to stay.

It isn’t “their” building that the Postal Service is talking about. As a public operation that is compelled to act like a business, it’s “our” building.